Facebook Changes Will Affect How You Share Links. Are You Ready?

Big changes coming to how you share articles and link on Facebook

Facebook announced late last month that they are making changes to the way Post previews are handled. In an effort to combat “fake news” on the platform Facebook is eliminating the ability to modify the preview of any shared link whether it be on personal or business pages. While this will, in fact, curb posters ability to alter article titles and images in order to deceive it will also affect how businesses post articles.

What does it mean?

You will no longer be able to customize how an article looks on Facebook when you post. This will affect posts directly to Facebook and posts generated via third-party applications like HootSuite or Gain. Facebook claims they are working with third parties and users to understand why editing titles and images are important. They also promise an alternative solution, though they have given no timeline for that. In the meantime what can you do?

What can you do?

One way around this is to post photo posts and include the link to your article in the body of the post. This work around may or may not be 100% effective but there is another way. That other way is Open Graph Metatags. Open Graph Metatags tell Facebook more about your content and let you specify how your articles should appear. og:title which specifies how the title should appear in a post and og:image which allows you to specify the exact URL to the image you want to appear when an article is shared. Using these metatags will give you control over how your links appear but not how links you share from other sites do. You can learn more at this page from Facebook.

For more information please give us at Davenport eCommerce a call or email to find out how we can help!

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Davenport eCommerce owner Tom Davenport has spent his career helping companies do more with technology. His dedication to the highest standards of customer service creates a positive experience with business owners who are tech novices or tech savvy. Find out how we can help your business today!